Your Pretty Face Is Going To Limbo (Part Four)

So, Limbo. Another plane of existence. One the X-Men were apparently familiar with. It would have been nice to learn about that at some point or another, so we'd have some frame of reference for how to respond if we ever wound up there, but to be fair, who could have seen any of this coming?

As far as Illyana went, it was her... but part of her. I listened to her with Megan, who was wronged the most by her, and Santo, who could smack her back down if she popped off. I asked Nicky to help free the others and help them get back in order and up to speed.

Illyana held her head, likely from the concussion Santo and I gave her, "I remember. I remember my life with Piotr, then coming to the school. Belasco, the X-Men, the New Mutants," She winced in pain, "I remember the dark times, the inferno... then nothing."

"I don't understand what that means," Megan said.

Illyana held out a finger and stared at it. We all tensed when a small bit of magic formed there, "When Belasco took back Limbo, he used his magics to summon me, pulling to him every bit of my essence. Every memory that he could find," She looked up at us, and noticing our defensive stances, quickly extinguished her magic, "I appeared before him. But my soul was missing. Instead of Illyana, Belasco got Darkchild instead."

Which meant we got Darkchild, who was at her strongest in Limbo, a place that already enhanced magic.

"That's messed up," Santo observed before his train of thought quickly derailed, "Hey, if you go into a church, would you catch on fire?"

I stood skeptical, arms crossed over my chest, "Belasco wanted you, but not you?"

"He wants my soul, not me," Illyana specified, "He wants to have everything that I was. And I'm going to kill him before he gets it," She said, sounding like something of a promise to herself.

Santo let out a derisive snort, "Yeah, okay. Whatever you say, Evil Illyana," He summed up her little story in one contemptuous name.

I added on, still pretty pissed off at everything that had happened since we first saw her, "Right now, the only reason I'm not losing my soul by fucking you up for the sake of karma is because we need to get our friends out and get home. How do we get to Belasco's castle?"

Illyana shrugged impotently, "I told you, I can't... but the girl can," She gestured to Megan.

Megan was still quite wary of Illyana, and stepped away, "Me?"

Illyana eyed Megan uncomfortably, "The creation of the Bloodstone has made a hole in her soul, which was filled with black magic. And now, she has a Soulsword... of sorts," More like a Souldagger, really.

"A hole in my soul?" It took Megan a moment for the severity of what she'd been told to dawn on her, "Oh my God! I'm evil now! You turned me evil, you bi-!" She stopped herself by covering her mouth at the last moment. Not that I wouldn't have said far worse in the same situation, but Megan hadn't cursed one time since I'd been around her.

"I'm pretty sure if she turned you evil, you wouldn't have stopped me from strangling her earlier," I said. I still kind of wanted to do it. Just a little bit, though, "Look, um, Illyana. How can Pixie get us there?"

She seemed to take a moment to mull over her options, before deciding on one. And not one she particularly liked, "I can teach her a spell. A teleportation spell."

XxX

Magic is bullshit.

"Jesus Christ, Marcher," Santo complained. Everyone had by now recovered enough to sit and watch with me while Megan trained with Illyana, "This is your big plan? Evil Illyana turns Megan into Dark Pixie, teaches her a fucking magic spell, and then we go fight the devil? You should replace Cyclops right now," He finished sarcastically.

"Suck my balls," I snapped back, less enraged than before, yet somehow grumpier. All of the dirt, soot, and blood on me had started to harden on my skin, and it was really uncomfortable, "If anyone else has a better plan than 'stomp Illyana out and go it alone', because that was my first idea, share. Please."

As Megan floated upside down, exuding pink magic, Sofia tilted her head along with the angle, "I mean... it seems to be working."

Megan concentrated on an incantation as she familiarized herself with the spell, "Sihal Novarum Chun-."

"-No," Illyana interrupted impatiently, "You are not trying hard enough. You should be able to do this without speaking!"

Megan huffed at her in return, "This isn't even English! And there's a lot of words! And you're mean!"

Upon the slight show of backbone, Illyana looked back at me. I raised my eyebrow as if to say that this was her idea. With a sigh of resignation due to her lack of options, she turned back to Megan, "...Again."

My mind was turning, and not in a good or productive way. The individual we were about to fight was stronger than Illyana, and she'd handed us our asses. Granted, we were tired when she attacked, but we were hardly any better now. We would get maybe an hour of rest, and then we were back into it.

Hopefully less, because every minute we rested was another minute that Belasco had access to our friends. I wasn't the only one who realized this. Everyone else did too. Noriko and Sofia were the antsiest though, not that I could blame them. Their boyfriends were there.

Laura came over to sit down next to me on the rocks, "What are we going to do when we get to the castle?" Right to business, she was.

"Step on Belasco's neck, shoot him in the head, grab our crew, and go the fuck home," I said. There wasn't going to be anything complicated about this.

Laura seemed a bit taken aback, "That's it? No battle plan?"

I didn't know what she expected me to say other than that, "Today was meant to start getting us used to working with each other. I don't have any real formations or tactics in mind yet for the whole team," What was kind of play was I supposed to call? And even if I did have something, no one would remember it once the bodies started flying, "If this guy is anything like Darkchild, we jump on his ass before he can chuck magic around, and grind him down until he's pulp."

Laura looked at me closely, specifically my eyes – the color of them, "Are you alright?"

"No," I held up my palm to show the sensor implant colored deep yellow, "I used a lot of power fighting demons and digging myself out of Illyana's stupid rock stockades. There's no recharges here. So, you know, whatever happens next better be decisive."

Laura seemed like she wanted to talk about something else, something unrelated to what we were going to do next. Before she could ask though, Illyana sauntered over, a pleased expression on her face, "She's learned the spell well enough to reach Belasco. Let's go."

Wow. That took an hour. Maybe less. The point was, Megan had some talent. I was impressed. Megan seemed happy with it too, if only because it got us a step closer to going home, "Which way is Belasco's castle anyway?" I asked.

Illyana gave me a curious look in return, "Why?" I didn't say, just shrugging in return. She rolled her eyes and pointed, "In exactly that direction. It's good you let me teach Pixie. Walking there would take you weeks... without the immeasurable number of demons you would have to fight along the way."

Laura chimed in, "As opposed to the immeasurable number of demons we'll have to fight once we're there?"

"At least you'll be there," Illyana said.

"True," I couldn't deny her that, "Alright guys, last preparations! It's time to do this!"